Bamboo Cat Shark

This is a discussion on Bamboo Cat Shark within the Saltwater Fish forums, part of the Saltwater Fish and Coral Reef Tanks category; -->
why dont you forget the hard species and start a 55 gallon FOWLR tank. That way you can get a lot of experiance with ...

why dont you forget the hard species and start a 55 gallon FOWLR tank. That way you can get a lot of experiance with saltwater. Then maybe one day upgrade it to a reef tank. A 55 gallon tank is the perfect tank for all begginers and im sure it would work great for you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt

Please whatever you do dont just go Buy a couple Hundred bags of Playsand From HomeDepot, Lowes, or any Hardware Store.
Save your Self some Money and Buy it from a Place thats sells it buy the
Scoop.(Big Tractor Scoop)(Each scoop is a couple hundred lbs.) Unless it looks really Nasty.
Its a LOT Cheaper. But you Might Have to Clean it Very well.
(the reason that I suggest this is that the ones by my home are very Cheap and Clean.)

That sand is not live sand and doesnt have anything in it to benefiet the saltwater tank at all. It needs to be live for sharks, the play sand also doesnt have any buffers in it to help maintain a high ph.

As for the breeding to make money, you cant really make good money from the saltwater hobby, even fragging corals makes you lose money from the lighting system. You could get tons more money by working at mcdonalds or something. Since you seem so educated from all the books, why dont you apply for a job at your lfs?

I'm not signing on to dash your hopes. You seem to have done a bit of homework on the subject. As to why a 180g tank will work and why you should have 600g goes like this. Ask your parents how many square feet your home is. When I was single and young, I was able to live in a 400sqf efficeincy apartment. My needs were met to an extent. I had to make a lot of sacrifices to do it. As I got older I got a larger place of about 900sqf. I really liked it until I realized that between my GF and I we still needed more room. We are looking at finding a home with at least 1,600sqf next. That's partly due to us needing an entire room for our 400g tank. Do you understand now what I'm getting at? I could have lived like a hermit in a tiny hole of an apt until I died but I'm much happier having the room to spread out and relax in.

I ask you where you plan to put a 6' diameter tub? In your garage? The heat and cold would kill your critters without expensive equipment. Your bedrooom? If so you'd feel just as cramped as that shark.

On such a limited budget I would never suggest trying to keep such an animal.

Personally I think you'll get a lot more reward at this stage of yoru life raising and breeding seahorses like you first thought about. Seahorses are not easy. To be succesful is a challenge with many rewards.

And as far as wasting your new found education, phooey. There is one thing in life that nobody can ever take from you and that is knowledge. I can steal your bicycle but I cannot steal your knowledge. The information you now know about sharks will be with you forever. It might lead to such an interest in marine biology that you choose to study it in college and then move on to more demanding situations like public aquaria where your knowledge will allow you to work with the very animals you wish to keep.

with that information you could try getting a part time job at your local aquaria or zoo, even your lfs, you can still take care of there sharks but you wont need to pay for anything, actually, you will get paid for doing that, maybe when your older and technology evolves, you can keep your own shark in your own home. My lfs has a 2000 gallon shark pond (i think there are baby nurse sharks in there, they probably get sent to the chicago shedd aquarium when there older) and if i work there, i might be able to feed them or something. This day was not a waste on the internet, you now know even more about sharks and maybe if someone trys to get one in a 180 gallon with limited budget, you can try and tell them not to the same way i told you how much it really costs.

musho, i talked with others and they said that the 425 lbs of live rock would not be a nessesaty because it's not the only way to filter biologically and stuff.

due to this, and what i've talked to others about, i do believe, with thee 425lbs of live rock out, i can still do this.

i currently have 30lbs i will have in the refugium. and i'll get more as i can.

with the size, he will strat out life in a 277 gallon. depending on how fast he grows, i'll try to upgrade the size of his area.

and the 277 gallon pool will be outside. i'll have a heater, and i'll make sure it stays the perfect temperature for him. if it is suposed to storm or something, i can put the cover on just in case.

i'll check the temperature, hydrometer, and water quality twice daily (morning and evening). i'll also get in the pool to clean up after the shark so there is not as much waste and stuff for the filter and critters to go through.

will i need some special suit to get in the pool or will he just swim up to me but not to anything? if he swims up to me that is. hopefully after being raised from birth with me he won't be afraid.

i'll try to get a large refugium, and it will have a large filter, smaller heater (just to keep the refugium warm for the shrimp/tubeworms/etc.

it will have atleast 30 lbs of live rock (at the beginning), and i want to get tubeworms and mussels as the filtration. the mussels will also be his food.

the shrimp will help clean up too, and i'll have alot of chaeto in there to help also.

i will probably, when i can, add scallops to the refugium and add themto his diet as well.

quick question, what type of fish meat should i buy that he will like the most, and that will be the best for him?

and i will still breed seahorses. but that will be after the shark probably.

if you guys really don't think i will be able to keep up with the expenses, give me a price range of how much it would take to start out.

before i do anything else, i need to find out for sure what i'm doing.

i know it will be hard, but i'm willing to do everything i can to keep the pool clean, and keep the shark as happy as i can make him.

i've made a ROUGH list of items i have on the top of my head. it's not everything i'm getting i'm sure. but it's just a rough idea. so please feel free to add on to the list.

whoever gave you that information about the rock is wrong, even people with a wet dry trickle filter and a canister and a hang on back filter, they still get the needed amount of live rock, 30 pounds is close to nothing, as for the sand, you still need to get live sand, this is going into the mid thousands you know, if you cant afford $1500 of live sand, how are you going to afford anything else? Remember what i said, there will be no shortcut, you will need that much live rock and you will NEED a protien skimmer

277 pool - few thousand dollars to install
Tube worms - no idea
85-100 white shrimp - 25 dollars
Protien skimmer - two 300 gallon skimmers will do, maybe around 400 dollars
Live rock - 4 dollars a pound, around 2400 dollars
Live sand - 1500 dollars, make sure the sand is live, not aragonite sand that you get in a bag
Aquarium filter (wet/dry trickle, canister, pond filter, you need all of these) in the high hundreds or low thousands
Heater - 300 dollars
pool cover - 10 dollars or something
Thermometers (you should know this, dollar or something)
you can only get one shark in there who will still need a bigger tank after this, around 40-100 dollars

Add-ons
Medical expenses (no idea, probably have a lot of problems in the beggining as there is no mother to help it out)
Power heads (you will A LOT of powerheads, enough to power 300-400 gallons) 40 dollars for a 50 gallon powerhead
You will need a light in the refugium to keep all the live rock's beneficial algae growing, probably a few metal halide lights - 300-500 dollars per MH light, i think you will need about 3 250 watts in the refugium and 2 250 watts in the shark pond
Pumps to trade water in the refugium to the tank

Leaving it outdoors is the worst idea I've read around here in a long time. First if it rains and ou are not home to cover it, say school, it can overflow, seriously ruin your salinity, or add pollutants to the pool. Second. How do you plan to keep it cool in the summer? It will die if the water stays above 80F even for a short period of time. I know people that have a hard time keeping the water below 80F in a home aquarium. Chillers will cost several thousand dollars to run out there.

Third what about racoons, cats, birds and dogs?

Fourth, what about neighbor kids messing with it?

fifth, what about pesticides and lawn waste collecting in the pool?

You think your the only person that ever had this thought? You realize why nobody is doing it?

You've been handed excellent reasons why this is foolish and arrogant. Like the other cat shark member you are becoming egotistical. The other member refused the advice and in turn only tried to justify it by saying they kept rare and venomous snakes that "everyone" said was foolish and not int he best interest of the snake. Justifying that you went against common advice only to do it is simply arrogance and an ego trip. The snakes and or sharks may not be in optimal health just because they are alive.

Next. It is extremely rude to come to one website and argue with advice from another website. If you prefer what the other site recommends then just do what they say and keep it to yourself. Many members have now wasted their time trying to help give sound advice and basically you've turned your back to them, pulled down your pants and waved your arrogant ass to them. If you don't want to be told not to do something foolish then do not announce it on an internet forum. So if you want a group of people that agree with you it's obvious it isn't this group.

Here, since I now refuse to offer any sort of advice to you, forever, i'll justify it all for you. "Bamboo you will never be satisfied in your life until someone agrees with you. Since I don not agree with you at all but you are goign to do it anyways, just do it and quit asking for advice since you already have it all made up in your mind how you will pull this off. Asking anymore questions, as you obviously have an answer for any suggestions made, then quit asking for help. Just buy the pool, the shark, your awesome sump and tell us how it goes."

This guy reminds me of ZebNZ. No matter what type of advice was given he always had a retort. Folks don't waste your time answering as he has all the answers, just read the last replies.

you also have to deal with evaporation outside which means you will have to add/take water out to keep it the right salinity level, which means you need to be on constant alert, spend a couple hundred dollar on a phone alert system, then spend a few thousands on chillers, then be able to run out of school the second something goes wrong with the shark and be there within 1 minute to fix it.

Basicly we are saying...................DONT GET THE SHARK!
Not trying to be rude but...its going to cost u a Fortune.
You wont be able to keep it alive with constant weather change outside
unless your putting in the house which will take up SO SO much Room.

Make the Right Choice....Please Get something else for the Sharks sake.
And leave the Shark keeping to the local Aquariums.......

i didn't finish reading all of the last three posts. but thanks for making the answer prompt, lol.

and the person about the live rock wasn't that wrong, you wouldn't need that much, and all of it would not have to be live, with a bit of live sand and a bit of live rock, the bacteria and so on would also duplicate and grow, it's not like the only bacteria you buy is the only there will be.

but i will go with the tnak then. wish me luck everyone though, when i have my own place and build a pool, it will be saltwater. so wish me luck for the future, hehe.

and i forget who said something about it. but yes, i'm planning on being a marine biologist in the future. i'd like to go on a study in the ocean and swim with a whale shark, thats one of my goals, since i was like 7.

anyway, everyone feel free to move on over to the 55g tank thread of mine.

i hope this information i have learned will help me someday when i have a job at a zoo or aquarium. :)